The original SuperBiller™, Mike Walmsley, shares his secrets of success
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Acknowledged as one of the best new business winners, Mike has worked in the recruitment industry since 1988, initially with two of the world’s largest recruitment companies and then with the International recruitment business Parker Bridge, where he was one of the initial drivers before subsequently becoming Managing Director and masterminding a twenty-fold growth in staff size and financial turnover. His hands on recruitment management experience and lessons learnt through his years as a recruitment trainer and through his Elite Development Programme in the UK, means that he knows just what it takes for you to get the most from your recruiters.
After hearing of the success of Mike’s tour to Australia, facilitated by their equivalent of APSO, the Recruitment and Consulting Services Association (RCSA), APSO was keen to bring Mike out to South Africa to share his experience and knowledge with members. When approached, Mike quickly agreed to be the key note speaker at the APSO National Staffing Conference and follow this with a tour of the major centres of South Africa where he could conduct longer training sessions. |
Mike Walmsley shared his techniques on “How to sell like a SuperBiller™” with consultants at the conference and the feedback was excellent. Many of our conference delegates noted that they would have been happy to listen to Mike for the entire afternoon. His tips included practical sales techniques, ways to find better quality candidates, time management and how to achieve greater billings with the same effort – the age old adage of work smarter, not harder.
Managers were treated to a more interactive session aimed at showing them “How to build a profitable recruitment business”. During the 45-minute session, Mike shared his Business Improvement Toolkit, and had managers thinking actively about their own internal business processes. He shared his own experiences in growing a small recruitment company both in terms of turnover and staff numbers. Much of the session focused on enhancing existing processes by making small changes that result in big impact and the feedback was good.
Following on from the conference, Mike embarked on a whirlwind tour of the major cities. On Monday he conducted two half-day sessions in Durban, Tuesday he did the same in Cape Town, and then two full day sessions on Wednesday and Thursday in Johannesburg.
Each of these sessions was focused on providing practical advice and techniques to move from good to great recruiters. The first session “Find Dozens more star candidates every week and fill more vacancies, guaranteed!” was a big hit – particularly in light of the current war for talent.
Delegates were given at least twenty different ways to find candidates and create a predominantly free candidate generation strategy for their businesses. Some of the techniques included:
- Networking & name gathering
- Improved referral systems – interviews, reference checks, marketing, application forms etc
- Candidate events
- Flagging friendly candidates
- Improved communication strategies for managing candidates on the database
- Better systems for improved record keeping, follow up & time management
- Increased service levels for candidates (service checks)
- Testimonial references
- The “Columbo” technique... “Just one more thing before you go...”
The second session focused more on senior recruiters and managers and was entitled “Prepare for Explosive Growth: The 3 marketplaces – Candidates, Clients and Employees”.
In this session, Mike shared strategies and tactics that helped him grow the International recruitment company Parker Bridge from 3 to over 100 staff in four different companies. The key changes necessary for achieving explosive growth included:
- Structuring the agency to achieve better results through systems, improved training, information gathering, candidate generation and targeted monitoring and evaluation
- Sourcing, training and retaining excellent recruiters – how to find the best of the best
- Improving the quality of the business being worked, higher fees, larger margins and greater vacancy to placement ratios
- Enhancing the value proposition for clients through clear product offering, increased service, high calibre candidates and sales techniques
- Creating a sought after brand in the market – attracting the right clients, candidates and potential employees through PR, marketing and other branding strategies
Feedback from all of his sessions was very positive, some of the most notable being:
“The section on teambuilding gave our company the opportunity to get together without interrupting our ability to make placements.” – Fionna
“Session was very interactive and re-affirmed much of what I know already, it definitely built my confidence” - Taryn
“Mike was very interactive and easily understood – his ideas are simple yet effective!” – Claire
“I especially enjoyed the practical examples and success stories.” – Ann
“I enjoyed the manner in which the material was conveyed to the audience, it was excellent. I especially enjoyed the examples Mike used, he gave the audience a recipe of ingredients and all of the information is useful and valid.” – Cornel
“It was a fantastic session! I really picked up a lot and just wish my partners had attended – hopefully Mike will be back next year.” – Sam
At the conclusion of his formal training workshops, Mike was invited to key note at the Eastern Cape’s mini conference held on Friday 1 August. During this hour-long session, Mike allowed the audience to dictate the format of the presentation. He requested input from the delegates on what they believed to be the key challenges facing recruitment companies in the province and from there provided guidance and practical techniques on how to overcome them.
Throughout his tour, Mike was blown away by the passion and dedication of the people he met. Despite his tour schedule being so hectic that he didn’t have much opportunity to explore the country, he saw enough to make him want to come back. Next time, Mike intends to bring his wife and two children to share in the magic that is South Africa and its wonderful people.
For those who didn’t get the opportunity to see Mike in action, why not look into purchasing some of his training DVDs? He has a wide range of topics covering elementary recruitment through to his Executive series which focuses on enabling owners and managers to grow their business to new levels.
One of our members, who purchased the DVDs immediately after the conference, sent in an email confirming the value of their investment:
“Hi Mike,
After watching you at the seminar last week, we bought the DVDs and watched the Candidate Power disc this morning.
People started going crazy around the office and we created a real good buzz.
Guess what? Between 5 of us we have generated over 12 very rare candidates TODAY ALONE!! We would not otherwise be able to find them had we not Columbo'ed some of their contacts!!!
This gives us great confidence now when we get hard to fill and seemingly impossible vacancies.
Attached you will find the Colombo sign we use to remind each other AND we have it stuck next to EVERY single telephone in the company (you can't even turn around in our office without seeing at least 4 wherever you stand or sit.)
All the best!”
For more information on how to access the DVDs or other online training programmes, contact APSO National Office today. As a value-add to our members, APSO via Mike Walmsley is offering all members an ongoing member discount of 10% off all of his products. Don’t delay, move your team from average billers to SuperBillers™ today!
